Ian Strange: FINAL ACT Précis Video

Commissioned by Christchurch Museum, Australian artist Ian Strange continues his suburban exploration with a light-based exhibit dubbed FINAL ACT. With many homes still ravaged as a result of New Zealand’s 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Strange chose to transform four of these soon-to-be-demolished homes as their “final act” so to speak. “This process of documentation is, in a sense, how they can live on,” said Strange. Once each home was structurally sound, geometric shapes were painstakingly cut into each of them, then lit from the inside as a way to signify the life that had previously inhabited them. In the end, acclaimed New Zealand cinematographer Alun Bollinger from The Lord of the Rings was brought aboard to capture both photography and film, which recently premiered at the Canterbury Museum as part of the Rise Festival.